Work machines such as, for example, wheel loaders, motor graders, track-type tractors, dump trucks, and other types of machinery are used to perform a variety of tasks associated with an industry such as, mining, construction, manufacturing, transportation, or any other such industry. These work machines may include systems that collect operation data associated with one or more components of the work machine and distribute the collected data to an external system.
Typically, these systems are designed for use in a particular type of work machine and configured to monitor only those components associated with that type of machine. Thus, systems designed for use in one type of work machine may require extensive manual reconfiguration and/or redesign prior to deployment in a different work machine, which may result in increased manufacturing costs and decreased monitoring system flexibility.
One method that has been developed to provide a more flexible monitoring system is described in U.S. Patent Application No. 2003/0182033 (“the '033 publication”) to Underdahl et al. The '033 publication describes a system for tracking the usage habits of a vehicle. The system of the '033 publication includes a communication port, a data storage medium, and a programmable processor configured to record usage data related to the use of the vehicle based on user-specified parameters. The system may also transmit the recorded data to a remote data device over the communication port in response to a query from the remote data device.
Although the system of the '033 publication may increase data monitoring flexibility by allowing users to specify the parameters that are recorded and transmitted, it may still suffer from the same flexibility problems as other conventional systems. For example, because the system is configured to record and transmit only usage data designated by a user, manual configuration of the system may still be required. Not only is such a practice cumbersome, but it may lead to the oversight of operational parameters by the user. Furthermore, because the system requires manual reconfiguration for each vehicle in which the system is installed, mass-deployment of the system of the '033 publication may be time consuming and inefficient.
Furthermore, the system of the '033 publication does not automatically update itself based on changes in a configuration of the vehicle. As a result, should a configuration of a vehicle component change, the system of the '033 publication may not appropriately respond to these changes. Thus, systems that rely on data collected from a particular component of the vehicle may become inaccurate and/or unreliable if not manually reconfigured by the user.
The disclosed information management system is directed towards overcoming one or more of the problems set forth above.